As students, our curriculum is carefully thought out by the school board, who take extreme precaution to plan our educational plan. They ‘ensure’ that students receive the best education that will help them after high school. However, when I posted an Instagram poll on Tuesday, December 5th, the results showing what high school students really knew were shocking.

I asked simple questions about what students knew and didn’t. Out of 218 high school students, 79% wouldn’t know how to fix a faucet if it broke in their house. I wouldn’t blame them, I wouldn’t know either. The problem with this is, students may not always live with someone who can fix a faucet and it would be a really important skill to learn. Unfortunately, Tahoma High School doesn’t have a class that would teach all students how to do this.

My next question asked whether students were CPR certified or not. Out of 229 students, 44% responded that they weren’t CPR certified. Although this number is under half, it accounts for 100 students. 100 students wouldn’t know how to use CPR on someone who could potentially die in their hands.

My last questions asked about personal finance skills. Out of 225 students, 49 didn’t know how to write a check and 143 didn’t know how stocks work. Not a problem, Tahoma High School offers a personal finance class right? Although this is true, the class is not required, therefore not every student will take it. I asked the students if they planned on taking a personal finance class while in high school, and 51% of those students answered that they weren’t. 51% of high school students will be graduating without being taught how to open a credit card account, balance checks, and make responsible decisions with money. How is that future ready?

Now, I could sit here all day and give you statistics about life skills that students don’t have. However, in order to solve this issue, there needs to be a solution. There is a clear answer that we, as high school students, need a class to teach us these skills. Imagine how much students would learn if they were required to take a class that taught basic skills such as home repairs, personal finance and employment, how to make an educated decision on voting, and etc. A one credit class that taught these skills is not too much to ask for and might actually make students “future ready”. Tahoma, this is vital.